[pbwatson]

Hi

I have factory halogens without halo's. Didn't even realize it til after I bought the car, I assumes all BMW's came with halo's. anyway I recently bought some ebay headlight housings to replace mine & am wondering if I should go with LED replacement bulbs or halogens. Main concern is downroad visibility (how far & how well I can see at night) secondary concern/preference is color temp looking for a white light probably about 6,000k. Have LED's gotten to a point yet that they can compete with or perform better than top shelf halogens like sylvania?

If you have any specific brand/bulb to recommend please do so

[kabrichx]

Halogens were revolutionary in the 70s when they replaced incandescent.

This Century they fail all the Highway Safety test.

HID Xenons blow them away as do SOME LEDs, though the F30 Standard LEDs also perform poorly on the safety tests.

[bmwchue]

Hi ive been wondering about these lights can you post up pictures of them installed and with lights on and off. Thx

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by pbwatson

Have LED's gotten to a point yet that they can compete with or perform better than top shelf halogens like sylvania?

The maximum lumens output from halogens is around 1500. LED are at least double that. I know, because I measured them:
http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1377259

[metallicpea]

Practically speaking, the best consistent downroad lighting seems to be HID. LED seem to have potential, but still some issues with execution. Mostly they are a selling feature and make the car nice to look at and less expensive to manufacture then HID.

I have factory LED - non adaptive, and they are not even close to the best headlights I have had on a car.

[pbwatson]

Originally Posted by bmwchue

Hi ive been wondering about these lights can you post up pictures of them installed and with lights on and off. Thx

I can but it’ll be a while. They haven’t arrived yet & I want to decide what bulbs I’m using & have them in hand before I even start the install. Then of course there are the holidays. I’m not sure I’ll have a free Sunday before the end of the year.

I will however post some pics of the housings & let you know what the quality looks like when I get them.

[pbwatson]

I agree that hid is great, I have a Porsche Boxster s with them & my wife’s Acura RDX has them as well. Stupid me assumed the bmw would as well, never even thought to check.

Yes led’s often have a much higher lumen output, but that doesn’t always mean you can see down-road better. If they don’t reflect & project properly. You can see the road immediately in front of Your car brilliantly, so well that it’s can be distracting. But, what you really want is to see far down the road. Many of the articles I’ve read say led fail at this but are getting better, these articles are all a couple years old. So, are they there yet or are we still waiting for it to be better?

[LMK5]

I have the LEDs on my 2017 and had the halogens on my 2014. The LEDS are better, but not markedly so. FWIW, the halogens on a 2017 are definitely better than on the 2014.

The present LEDs emit a very white light. They don't project down the road all that well, but they're adequate. The light is also somewhat uneven. The real issue to me is the lighting towards the corners. When stopped at a stop sign and wanting to make a right turn, you don't get much lighting towards the crosswalk. Turning on the fog lights helps a great deal with this, and some here have coded the appropriate fog light to come on with the turn signal. I haven't coded my car because I'm convinced I'll unleash a nightmare. I'm an engineer and see this kind of thing all the time.

[metallicpea]

Originally Posted by LMK5

I have the LEDs on my 2017 and had the halogens on my 2014. The LEDS are better, but not markedly so. FWIW, the halogens on a 2017 are definitely better than on the 2014.

The present LEDs emit a very white light. They don't project down the road all that well, but they're adequate. The light is also somewhat uneven. The real issue to me is the lighting towards the corners. When stopped at a stop sign and wanting to make a right turn, you don't get much lighting towards the crosswalk. Turning on the fog lights helps a great deal with this, and some here have coded the appropriate fog light to come on with the turn signal. I haven't coded my car because I'm convinced I'll unleash a nightmare. I'm an engineer and see this kind of thing all the time.

I have had my last 3 BMWs (all different models) coded by 3 different forums friends. Never had an issue of any kind. I can see avoiding it if you were just going to change some non important items, but if you can address a specific issue important to you, I would give it a try. I am an Engineer too. I think the software has been put together pretty well and if you are only messing with controlled specific items, you reduce the risk of any problems.

[ynguldyn]

I have adaptive LEDs, and these are the best headlights I ever had (two previous ones had HIDs). Non-adaptives look kinda meh to me, but still better than halogens.

However, the OP here is not asking us about OEM headlights. He has some unknown aftermarket thing going, and the result of that could be anything at all. China has many factories.

[LMK5]

Originally Posted by metallicpea

I have had my last 3 BMWs (all different models) coded by 3 different forums friends. Never had an issue of any kind. I can see avoiding it if you were just going to change some non important items, but if you can address a specific issue important to you, I would give it a try. I am an Engineer too. I think the software has been put together pretty well and if you are only messing with controlled specific items, you reduce the risk of any problems.

Any reason why you opted not to do it yourself with the Bimmercode app?

[metallicpea]

Originally Posted by LMK5

Any reason why you opted not to do it yourself with the Bimmercode app?

I just figured I wasn't going to guinea pig my own car. Friends offered to help, or help for a small fee and they had already done it to at least a few cars so I could use their practice to help me along.

I research and do my codeing once shortly after living with the car for awhile, so it is way long in between codes so 1. I don't really retain the knowledge and 2. the model and software are different each time, so not really worth becoming proficient each time all over again.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by LMK5

I haven't coded my car because I'm convinced I'll unleash a nightmare. I'm an engineer and see this kind of thing all the time.

The only reason why coding appears daunting is because other than what's translated for you on the cheat sheets everything is written in German. If it was all in English it would be practically intuitive. I considered Carly etc, but when I saw how limited those sources were in what they could do I tried E-Sys. It's not the least bit difficult, especially if you watch this:

[Newman1]

To the OP, as far as an LED bulb recommendation, here's what'd I'd recommend:

http://www.vleds.com/shop-products/l.../micro-h7.html

The LEDs are located at the same spot as the filament of a typical halogen bulb within the casing, and the size makes it reflect much better in the reflector housings than most HIDs or LED bulbs will. Most others light up in a different spot, so it throws the light all over the place from the housing. Still not perfect, but they put out more usable light, and reflect it very well all things considered.

[Danddd]

Originally Posted by Newman1

To the OP, as far as an LED bulb recommendation, here's what'd I'd recommend:

http://www.vleds.com/shop-products/l.../micro-h7.html

The LEDs are located at the same spot as the filament of a typical halogen bulb within the casing, and the size makes it reflect much better in the reflector housings than most HIDs or LED bulbs will. Most others light up in a different spot, so it throws the light all over the place from the housing. Still not perfect, but they put out more usable light, and reflect it very well all things considered.

Looks interesting. Have you tried these? Coming off the adaptive HIDs on my last wagon, I'm missing the light.

[Newman1]

Yep, same here. Going back to halogens after my previous three cars all had HID was tough, so I researched to find the best solution. These work quite well at putting out useable light without blinding other cars.

I went with the 5k color, don't care much for the blue tint 6k and above have. The fan also does a great job of keeping the bulbs cool. I had already coded out the bulb checks so no errors, etc.

[ynguldyn]

Originally Posted by metallicpea

I just figured I wasn't going to guinea pig my own car.

Bimmercode is so user friendly a little baby could do it and never brick the car.

[dsc888]

Originally Posted by metallicpea

Practically speaking, the best consistent downroad lighting seems to be HID. LED seem to have potential, but still some issues with execution. Mostly they are a selling feature and make the car nice to look at and less expensive to manufacture then HID.

I have factory LED - non adaptive, and they are not even close to the best headlights I have had on a car.

I concur. I traded a 2015 335ix Luxury Line with the Adaptive HIDs and the base LED (non-adaptive) headlights are a step down. HIDs in projector housing is about as good as it gets for current technology. The light projects really well to the sides of the road and seem to light up about double the distance as my LEDs right now. HIDs from OEMs are generally 4,100K and so are "warmer" in color vs the current very white LEDs. It's actually better in inclement weather as the more yellow light is less likely to reflect off raindrops back into your eyes.

I would consider an Adaptive LED retrofit down the line if they do sell one that can be Plug and Play. Better yet, I'd be happy to step "backwards" and put HIDs in projectors into my 2017 if I could. My wife's 2014 Honda Odyssey Elite has the HIDs in projectors and it lights up the night road much better than my M Sport.

[eluded]

I have the standard F 30 LEDs and they suck. They are just aimed too low and they're auto adjusting. I would mention this to the BMW dealer next time it's in for maintenance but I'm sure they'll break something in the process of diagnosing it.

[moff]

I've got the Adaptive LED's in my 440 and they are amazing, love them. Even better than the bi-xenons in my last car - 640.

Very bright and I have no issues when in dip, full beam or adaptive.

Halogens are awful.

[wilbur_the_goose]

Personal experience - /14 BMW F30 with Xenon HIDs versus '16 Honda Civic Touring with LEDs.

The LEDs are brighter, but the Xenon HIDs win the day for me every time. Throw in adaptive headlights, and you have a winner in my book.

[Dang3r]

Had adaptive LED's on my F32 and miss them very much, never had better lightning at dark night. Actually returned with other car to xenos, no match.